Bethany arrived in the D R Weds at 2AM after a 4 hr delay in Miami. Not sure we will hear anything more until she comes back. Please continue to pray for her and the team in Chad.
Bruce
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Received from Nathan
We're here...in the capital. heading out to chageen in a couple minutes on the MAF flight. No need to write back as i don't think we'll be checking email. Mom would love to hear that we managed to get bumped up to business class for the flight to Paris. Russ had mentioned at the ticket desk that he was a frequent flier on United, but thought nothing of it. They called out our names at the gate, we thought we might be getting bumped...and we were, bumped up to the high life. Tell Bill, i'm sure he'll think it's hilarious. It was nice, but i really didn't sleep much. The flight to N'Djamena was nice too.
nate
We're here...in the capital. heading out to chageen in a couple minutes on the MAF flight. No need to write back as i don't think we'll be checking email. Mom would love to hear that we managed to get bumped up to business class for the flight to Paris. Russ had mentioned at the ticket desk that he was a frequent flier on United, but thought nothing of it. They called out our names at the gate, we thought we might be getting bumped...and we were, bumped up to the high life. Tell Bill, i'm sure he'll think it's hilarious. It was nice, but i really didn't sleep much. The flight to N'Djamena was nice too.
nate
Friday, December 26, 2008
According to Air France's web site the plane carrying Fred, JD, Nathan, and Russ has arrived in the capital. They should catch a ride with MAF and arrive in Chageen Sat morning. They are 7 hours ahead of us. Not sure we will hear anything while they are there. A recent report from Mark and Diane follows.
Dear family and friends, December 13, 2008
It has been just about 2 months since we returned to Chad. Here in brief are a few highlights of these past weeks.
The Lord was gracious to us and our return to Chad was not as much of a shock to our system as we anticipated. The country is relatively stable at this time.
We flew back to Chageen on MAF and were warmly welcomed by our friends and colleagues. We found everything in much better order than we expected. All our equipment (water pump, fridge, electrical system) still worked, and the radio station, medical clinic, and other ministries were functioning normally. Our employees had taken good care of our home so there was no termite damage. After a week or two, the snake and ant population were brought back under control.
We now have a satellite phone in Chageen enabling us to do email on a more regular basis. It has already had a dramatic impact on our quality of life in the village. We are, we believe, the last missionaries in Chad to get access to this technology.
We attended our annual field conference a couple weeks ago and bade farewell to our senior missionaries, Carl and Sandy Hodges who are retiring from Chad after 42 years here. It is a poignant milestone for all of us. Yesterday they boarded Air France in N'Djamena for the last time. They sailed on a ship the first time.
On Christmas day a work team of four men from First Baptist in Sycamore, IL will leave from O’Hare field in Chicago to come put the roof on the new clinic building. Mark has been working full-time with our Chadian masons to prepare the structure for their arrival.
Our main prayer request at this time is for strength, health, and safety for both ourselves and the work-team as we finish the construction of the clinic. Pray that the clinic building would be finished by the end of January so we can return to our ministries of Bible translation and teaching.
That's all for now. A Merry and Christ-centered Christmas to each of you.
Love, Mark and Diane Vanderkooi
Dear family and friends, December 13, 2008
It has been just about 2 months since we returned to Chad. Here in brief are a few highlights of these past weeks.
The Lord was gracious to us and our return to Chad was not as much of a shock to our system as we anticipated. The country is relatively stable at this time.
We flew back to Chageen on MAF and were warmly welcomed by our friends and colleagues. We found everything in much better order than we expected. All our equipment (water pump, fridge, electrical system) still worked, and the radio station, medical clinic, and other ministries were functioning normally. Our employees had taken good care of our home so there was no termite damage. After a week or two, the snake and ant population were brought back under control.
We now have a satellite phone in Chageen enabling us to do email on a more regular basis. It has already had a dramatic impact on our quality of life in the village. We are, we believe, the last missionaries in Chad to get access to this technology.
We attended our annual field conference a couple weeks ago and bade farewell to our senior missionaries, Carl and Sandy Hodges who are retiring from Chad after 42 years here. It is a poignant milestone for all of us. Yesterday they boarded Air France in N'Djamena for the last time. They sailed on a ship the first time.
On Christmas day a work team of four men from First Baptist in Sycamore, IL will leave from O’Hare field in Chicago to come put the roof on the new clinic building. Mark has been working full-time with our Chadian masons to prepare the structure for their arrival.
Our main prayer request at this time is for strength, health, and safety for both ourselves and the work-team as we finish the construction of the clinic. Pray that the clinic building would be finished by the end of January so we can return to our ministries of Bible translation and teaching.
That's all for now. A Merry and Christ-centered Christmas to each of you.
Love, Mark and Diane Vanderkooi
Saturday, July 19, 2008
an update from Bethany
Bethany wrote us this week and the following is a short report from that e-mail.
The staff have finished the older children's VBS as of this week. They also took the school program kids into t0wn for an ice cream treat.
The staff went white water rafting with a work team from the U.S. and had a great time. A surprise visit to the Ark was also part of the day. Bethany was blessed by being able to see so many of the kids she worked with last summer there.
Bethany has one more week of working with the school program in the morning and tutoring in the afternoon. She said it is going very well.
The staff have finished the older children's VBS as of this week. They also took the school program kids into t0wn for an ice cream treat.
The staff went white water rafting with a work team from the U.S. and had a great time. A surprise visit to the Ark was also part of the day. Bethany was blessed by being able to see so many of the kids she worked with last summer there.
Bethany has one more week of working with the school program in the morning and tutoring in the afternoon. She said it is going very well.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Bethany's adventures in the DR
Bethany is not able to write on the blog, but she did manage to get off an email so please enjoy:
so today i was able to get on the internet and also had enough time to be on the internet and get stuff done because the connection is slow. apologize to dad because i cannot get on the blog site due to the slow connection that i have. but here's what's going on. we started our second week of school today. i'm in the kindergarten class which is very chaotic. i am literally pulling kids off of each other daily because they all are fighters and have no concept of being obedient in class. i have been hit by kids and even bitten but they are getting better. last week was pretty stressful with the class and feeling like they were not learning anything because they were talking and fighting and what not but we had one good day last week and today was amazing other than having to send a girl home for the third time which means she cannot return to the summer program, but one of the kids (the one who bit me) actually was really well behaved today and listened and participated well which was really good to see happen. it may sound like this is a horrible experience but i really am enjoying it and establishing relationships with these children. one kindergartner is soo little that i can lift him over my head and fully extend my arms without a problem. so that's school which we do in the mornings. this last week in the afternoons we did ebdv which is vbs and there were from 400 to 500 kids there all in one church building which seemed ridiculous and chaotic but it was a great time and the kids really enjoyed it. i worked in the 5 to 6 year old boy class which was great. i had a group that i was in charge of and they all colored really well and were excited to show me their pictures and stuff and now when i walk past them in the streets they yell "profe" which means teacher so that was good but that's over and starting today we will begin tutoring some kids at casa monte plata which is the orphanage here. for the most part i will be working with kids who are really in need of help with math so i'm looking forward to trying to get these kids up to par with their grade. yesterday we drove about ten miles outside the city and drove through a river to drop alba and nadelly who live with the missionary girls and now us here at the school. they are going to the camp for 18 days to do work while the boys are going to camp and then after those 18 days they will be there for another 18 days to go to camp so we won't get to see them unless we visit them before we leave which was a little sad because we had spent a lot of time with them and become their friends and they even had nicknames for me, but we did that yesterday. on saturday rebekah (missionary in monte plata) and sarah (intern) and me went to a waterfall actually there were three waterfalls and did some swimming and luckily there was nobody else there so we had these gorgeous waterfalls and super clear river all to ourselves and it was a good day just to relax and cool off in the river. going to church is always a fun experience. when they say it is conservative it is like really conservative. we wear head coverings and skirts to every service so sunday mornings sunday nights wednesday nights and any other night that there is a prayer service or anything like that. like this week since it is the first of the month we will have church every night which means we wear skirts and head coverings every night...also we do communion every sunday and if you have been baptised you sit on one side of the church to take communion and if you have not been baptized you sit on the otherside and don't take communion. they also dont have a pastor but a different elder preaches every week which is good and we heard a really good message yesterday about not leaving any room in our lives for sin. another fun fact about the church is that if someone is interested in someone they spend a year observing each other and then after that year they go before the church elders and ask if they can get married and then once the elders give their permission the couple can start planning the wedding but they never date before that they just observe each other which seems actually crazy. oh and another thing about the church is that they do not have like a worship team or song leader someone just throws out a song number and a guy somewhere in the church (i have yet to find out where) starts playing the song on a keyboard and everyone opens their song books and starts singing the song...it would seem impossible but it is really smooth and not chaotic whatsoever. it rained really hard yesterday for the first time since we've been here which was nice because it gave us a break from the really hot days that we've been having mixed with ridiculous amounts of humidity. well that's pretty much everyhting that is happening you may not receive another email from me so enjoy this one because i do not know if i will have internet access or the time to use the internet but for now that is all.
bethany
so today i was able to get on the internet and also had enough time to be on the internet and get stuff done because the connection is slow. apologize to dad because i cannot get on the blog site due to the slow connection that i have. but here's what's going on. we started our second week of school today. i'm in the kindergarten class which is very chaotic. i am literally pulling kids off of each other daily because they all are fighters and have no concept of being obedient in class. i have been hit by kids and even bitten but they are getting better. last week was pretty stressful with the class and feeling like they were not learning anything because they were talking and fighting and what not but we had one good day last week and today was amazing other than having to send a girl home for the third time which means she cannot return to the summer program, but one of the kids (the one who bit me) actually was really well behaved today and listened and participated well which was really good to see happen. it may sound like this is a horrible experience but i really am enjoying it and establishing relationships with these children. one kindergartner is soo little that i can lift him over my head and fully extend my arms without a problem. so that's school which we do in the mornings. this last week in the afternoons we did ebdv which is vbs and there were from 400 to 500 kids there all in one church building which seemed ridiculous and chaotic but it was a great time and the kids really enjoyed it. i worked in the 5 to 6 year old boy class which was great. i had a group that i was in charge of and they all colored really well and were excited to show me their pictures and stuff and now when i walk past them in the streets they yell "profe" which means teacher so that was good but that's over and starting today we will begin tutoring some kids at casa monte plata which is the orphanage here. for the most part i will be working with kids who are really in need of help with math so i'm looking forward to trying to get these kids up to par with their grade. yesterday we drove about ten miles outside the city and drove through a river to drop alba and nadelly who live with the missionary girls and now us here at the school. they are going to the camp for 18 days to do work while the boys are going to camp and then after those 18 days they will be there for another 18 days to go to camp so we won't get to see them unless we visit them before we leave which was a little sad because we had spent a lot of time with them and become their friends and they even had nicknames for me, but we did that yesterday. on saturday rebekah (missionary in monte plata) and sarah (intern) and me went to a waterfall actually there were three waterfalls and did some swimming and luckily there was nobody else there so we had these gorgeous waterfalls and super clear river all to ourselves and it was a good day just to relax and cool off in the river. going to church is always a fun experience. when they say it is conservative it is like really conservative. we wear head coverings and skirts to every service so sunday mornings sunday nights wednesday nights and any other night that there is a prayer service or anything like that. like this week since it is the first of the month we will have church every night which means we wear skirts and head coverings every night...also we do communion every sunday and if you have been baptised you sit on one side of the church to take communion and if you have not been baptized you sit on the otherside and don't take communion. they also dont have a pastor but a different elder preaches every week which is good and we heard a really good message yesterday about not leaving any room in our lives for sin. another fun fact about the church is that if someone is interested in someone they spend a year observing each other and then after that year they go before the church elders and ask if they can get married and then once the elders give their permission the couple can start planning the wedding but they never date before that they just observe each other which seems actually crazy. oh and another thing about the church is that they do not have like a worship team or song leader someone just throws out a song number and a guy somewhere in the church (i have yet to find out where) starts playing the song on a keyboard and everyone opens their song books and starts singing the song...it would seem impossible but it is really smooth and not chaotic whatsoever. it rained really hard yesterday for the first time since we've been here which was nice because it gave us a break from the really hot days that we've been having mixed with ridiculous amounts of humidity. well that's pretty much everyhting that is happening you may not receive another email from me so enjoy this one because i do not know if i will have internet access or the time to use the internet but for now that is all.
bethany
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Baptist:)
The following acrostic backronym, spelling BAPTISTS, represents a useful summary of Baptists' distinguishing beliefs:[8]
- Biblical authority (Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:23; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
- Autonomy of the local church (Matt. 18:15–17; 1 Cor. 6:1-3)
- Priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:5-9; 1 Timothy 5)
- Two ordinances (believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper) (Acts 2:41–47; 1 Cor. 11:23-32)
- Individual soul liberty (Romans 14:5–12)
- Separation of Church and State (Matthew 22:15–22)
- Two offices of the church (pastor-elder and deacon) (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1–2)
- Saved church membership (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 5:23–32; Colossians 1:18
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Apostle's Creed
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)